Low Voltage Outdoor Lighting
Low voltage outdoor lighting fixtures generate areas of safe secure light around your home and garden. They come in a wide range of styles and sizes and can be easily installed by a home owner. Look for high quality construction, you can spend as little as $10.00 for a fixture or as much as $200.00 for a solid brass fixture. Avoid low priced all plastic fixtures as they are poorly made and will not last long outdoors. We recommend buying your outdoor lighting in a kit and save a few bucks. A good quality kit will cost you $100.00 to $200.00.
Lighting kits usually contain six well made all metal fixtures, 100 feet of low voltage number 16 wire that connect them together, six lamps and a step down transformer that converts ordinary house current from 120 volts to 12 volts. The step down transformer just plugs into an electrical outlet and the output connections then feeds 12 volts to all the fixtures. For greater value buy an expandable lighting kit with a step down transformer rated at twice the wattage of the total number of fixtures it contains. Expandable means that the transformer can power extra fixtures if needed.
Low voltage outdoor lighting fixtures are made in several different styles. Spotlights focus light on to a tree or highlight important architectural details of your home. Choose a kit that contains a halogen bulb for a bright directed beam of light. A Path Spotlight is ideal for lighting the key plants in your landscaping or walkways. Use Tier accent fixtures for narrow paths as they direct light downward. Other fixtures spread light downward in a circle illuminating everything in a wide radius. Post lantern fixtures with larger halogen bulbs directs the light outward and are ideal for replacing existing gas or 120 volt post lamps.